Where the boat had gone I couldn’t figure out, for from where I was now I could see a quarter of a mile down the river and quite a ways up and down the shore. The only live thing anywhere around was a red-headed woodpecker that propped himself up against the side of a butternut tree and pecked away like he was paid to do it by the hour.
“Huh,” says I to myself, “that’s funny.” I sat there scratching my head awhile, and then made up my mind to slide down the back to explore closer. It was steep there, almost dead up and down, but there were bushes and things to hang on to, so I didn’t think anything about it at all, but just turned around and started down crab-fashion, feet first and with my face toward the ground. Probably I was a quarter of the way down when I stepped on a loose bit of earth which went slipping out from under me. I grabbed out at a wild-rose bush, prickers and all, but missed, and went pell-mell, head over heels, down to the bottom, tearing chunks out of my clothes and scuffing off patches of skin.
When I landed bump at the bottom I lay still a minute to find out if I was busted any place; but there wasn’t anything wrong outside of scratches and bruises, so I sat up and looked to see just where I’d fetched up. I saw all right. Not more than six feet away from me were Batten and Bill a-grinning at me like a pair of Cheshire cats.
“Good morning,” says Batten, polite-like. “You come down a little sudden, didn’t you?”
I was so startled and mad I didn’t answer a word. I’d made a pretty mess of things for sure, coming tumbling right down into Batten’s arms that way. All they would have to do was just step up and grab me. That would mean that Mark would be left all alone to guard the cave, and it wouldn’t be any job at all for Batten and Bill to get him. They would just have to divide and come at him from different ways. If one man came uphill from below and another came down at the cave from above, what chance would Mark have? Not a bit.
I couldn’t even give him warning, for it was too far to holler. I felt pretty mean, I can tell you. I was a nice kind of a scout to send out, wasn’t I? To go sprawling right into the enemy’s hands the first thing!
Bill was laughing so he had to lean up against a tree, and Batten was standing about six feet off and grinning as mean as could be. It was evident they thought they had me safe, and I thought so, too; but nobody ever did anything without trying first. I couldn’t be any worse off if I tried to get away, and I might make a go of it if I was quick. I didn’t think about it more than a second, but rolled over and over a couple of times, leaped to my feet, and went a-kiting upstream toward the cave.
Batten let out a surprised yell and came jumping after me, with Bill right behind him, sort of barking at every step he took. I had started off so quick, and it took them so all of a sudden, that I got a lead of most twenty feet, which wasn’t enough by any manner of means. Two hundred would have suited me better.
I couldn’t climb the hill, the river headed me off on the other side, and so there was only one way for me to go, and that was right along the edge of the water. It was the best way, anyhow, because it was clearer of underbrush and shrubs. I stood a chance of beating them in a clear space, but they could push their way through bushes faster than I because they were stronger. I put my head down and ran.
Back of me I heard Batten and Bill floundering and plunging. They didn’t yell after the start—saving their breath, I guess—but just kept after me as fast as they could come. I didn’t know whether they were gaining or not; and I didn’t dare turn my head to see, for fear of tripping over something. It was pretty certain I couldn’t get to Mark, for that would mean climbing the hill, but I might tire the men out by running on straight ahead. Anyhow, if they didn’t catch me too soon I could get close enough to the cave to yell and warn Mark, and that was the chief thing to think about. “He mustn’t be taken by surprise! He mustn’t be taken by surprise!” I kept saying to myself over and over again.